Origin of the Seven Stars of the Great Bear
O
nce upon a time, in Ch’o(nhagung (the Galaxy Palace) lived Mr Ch’ilso(ng, who was seventeen, and in Chihagung (the Earth Palace) lived Ms Oknyo(, who was sixteen. Ms Oknyo( proposed marriage once, but Mr Ch’ilso(ng was not at all interested. After she proposed a second and then a third time, he accepted it as fate.After sending the document in which the four pillars of the birth year, month, day and hour of the bridegroom-to-be are written to the house of his fiancé,1 and choosing an auspicious day, Mr Ch’ilso(ng was to be married. Extravagantly dressed with a huge sunshade to the right and a big pole to the left, he gallantly crossed the rainbow towards his bride’s home.2He arrived, looked into the marriage ceremony hall, and found it splendidly decorated and prepared. Folding screens were spread on the left and right, a tent was set up, all kinds of flowers were arranged, and a chicken and rooster were prepared on the table.3Arriving at the ceremonial hall, Mr Ch’ilso(ng drank the nuptial wine,4 then entered the decorated room, and consummated his marriage with Ms Oknyo(.
But after ten years of marriage they had no children.
One day, Mr Ch’ilso(ng said to Mrs Oknyo(, ‘Dear wife, other people my age have sons and daughters, and raise them well. We have none, so let us bear offspring through devotion.’
The couple made offerings to the Buddha, built a shrine dedicated to the Big Dipper in the back garden, and prayed sincerely for three months and ten days.
One evening, Mrs Oknyo( had an auspicious dream. Seven stars fell at her feet and when she gathered them in her skirt to look at them, she woke up from the dream. From the fifteenth day of that month, she showed signs of pregnancy, and after ten months, there were signs of labour. After praying with devotion to the Birth Grandmother for an easy labour, she gave birth to a boy as easily as a boat gliding over ice. After the boy came out they waited for the afterbirth but instead another boy came out. Again, they waited for the afterbirth and yet another baby came out. Again it was a son. In this way she continued to give birth to four, five, six, seven babies.
When Mr Ch’ilso(ng heard a voice from outside saying, ‘Tell Mr Ch’ilso(ng that all of his offspring are born,’ Mr Ch’ilso(ng asked a maid, ‘Has she given birth to a boy?’
ORIGIN OF THE SEVEN STARS OF THE GREAT BEAR 43
Mr Ch’ilso(ng was joyous, so he hurried into the delivery room to record the birth year, month, day, and hour of birth with charcoal and paper. Mrs Oknyo( and seven children were lying side-by-side on the floor. Mr Ch’ilso(ng saw this and stepping back said, ‘Even the lower animals say that more than two offspring is too many. But how can a human give birth to seven on one umbilical cord? I cannot raise them. I haven’t enough milk or rice.’
Mr Ch’ilso(ng abandoned his wife right then and there, went up to the country of heaven, and remarried.
‘How can I part from my husband overnight and raise fatherless children?’ Mrs Oknyo( heaved a sigh, so she went to the Evergreen Waters to offer the children as food for the Dragon King, but suddenly the sky rumbled and someone called her, ‘Mrs Oknyo(, those offspring are sent by heaven. Even if you put them in water or fire, they will not die and will grow up on their own. If you throw them out here, you will become a cripple. So hurry back. If you feed them three spoonfuls of porridge at night and milk seven times during the day, you will see a difference each day.’
After listening to this, Mrs Oknyo( returned home, made pillows stuffed with black sand, and laid the babies here and there on a blue yarn coverlet. When she gave them three spoonfuls of porridge at night and fed them milk begged from others seven times during the day, the babies grew up quickly and she saw a difference each day. In this fashion, fifteen years passed and all of the children reached the age of fifteen.
One day, the children came together and told their mother, ‘Mother, if we don’t study letters, we will become common ingnorant people. Please, teach us letters.’ So Mrs Oknyo( enrolled them at a village school where they learned to read and write.
One day in spring, while the schoolteacher was sightseeing in the moun- tains, the students teased the seven children by saying they were bastards without a father. The seven children were startled and came home crying, ‘Mother, if father is dead, tell us where his grave is. If he is alive, tell us where he went.’
To this the mother replied, ‘Look, my children, how can I deceive you now? Your father was shocked that I bore seven children in one womb, so he went up to Ch’o(nhagung and remarried.’
‘Mother, we will go and look for our father,’ said the seven children. Accordingly, the mother prepared for them seven pairs of trousers, seven shirts and seven pairs of lined socks and shoes, and the children set off on their journey. As she watched the children going further and further away, Mrs Oknyo( was dumbfounded and waited for the return both of her lost husband and now her offspring as well.
The seven children went up to Ch’o(nhagung and asked a passer-by, ‘Which is the house of the man who was married to Chihagung, but came here and remarried?’
‘It is the house with the blue-tiled-roof over there’, said the passer-by. The seven children arrived at the blue-tiled house and watched from the
entrance. Mr Ch’ilso(ng lived without a care in the world in the big house built in the middle of the street with windbells hung on the four corners.
‘We have come to pay our respects, father,’ said the seven children as they greeted him.
Mr Ch’ilso(ng heard them and said, ‘This is a place not even flying birds or crawling insects can enter. How did you find this place? Are you human beings or ghosts? If you are human beings, enter. If you are ghosts, leave now.’ The seven children entered and said, ‘Father, we have come to pay our respects. We seven brothers have grown up, as you can see, even in your absence.’
Mr Ch’ilso(ng welcomed them, ‘My offspring.You have found me.’
One day, the stepmother summoned each of the seven children and said, ‘Should I build you a reading hall, or teach you your letters, or let you pass the civil service examination? Even if you were my own offspring, I could not love you more.’
‘Stepmother, please build us a reading hall’, said the seven children. After erecting the hall, Mr Ch’ilso(ng taught his seven children their letters and they studied well. Mr Ch’ilso(ng concentrated only on their studies and came to neglect all housekeeping matters.
One day, the stepmother was lonely and miserable and thought, ‘Because of the first wife’s children, the house will be ruined and even my relationship with my husband will be severed. What should I do?’ Finally the stepmother became ill night and day because of her pent-up anger, and she complained of her lot in life, ‘Ah, my fate! If his first wife fell ill, they would have at least visited a fortune-teller to save her. But since I have fallen ill, they ignore me. The second wife is useless.’
Mr Ch’ilso(ng heard this and was startled. Entering the room5 he asked, ‘Are you ill? Let us send someone to the pharmacy and even visit the fortune- teller to cure your illness.’
While Mr Ch’ilso(ng was sorting out the fortune-teller’s fee, the stepmother left the house and took a short-cut to the fortune-teller.
‘Fortune-teller, are you there?’ asked the stepmother. ‘Has someone come to visit?’ said the fortune-teller. ‘It is me’, said the stepmother.
The fortune-teller opened the door, welcomed the stepmother, saying, ‘What brought you here?’
‘If Mr Ch’ilso(ng comes to have his fortune told, do not say anything except that reading the Buddhist scriptures, performing a shamanist rite, or taking a drug is useless. Say that the illness is because the seven human beings came from the east, and I will be cured if I am fed the livers of the seven children’, said the stepmother.
The fortune-teller heard this and replied, ‘I cannot fabricate such a fortune. Do you not fear the punishment you will receive for killing seven lives?’
‘We can share the slaves and the paddy fields. I will give you half my fortune’, the stepmother tempted him.
After the stepmother said this, she took off her phoenix hairpin, her gold and jade rings, and gave them to the fortune-teller.
After the stepmother left, Mr Ch’ilso(ng arrived. He entered at once and asked, ‘Fortune-teller, are you there?’
‘Who comes to visit me?’ said the fortune-teller.
‘My wife is ill so I’ve come to have her fortune told’, said Mr Ch’ilso(ng. The fortune-teller opened the door, went out to receive Mr Ch’ilso(ng, and entered. After the fortune-teller positioned his table and threw the yarrow sticks, he said, ‘I cannot tell this fortune.’
Mr Ch’ilso(ng heard this and said, ‘Tell me what you can.’
The fortune-teller divided the yarrow sticks, read the fortune, and said, ‘She became ill because the seven human beings came from the east. Reading the Buddhist scriptures, performing a shamanist rite, or taking a drug, all these are useless. She can only be cured if you feed her the livers of the seven children.These sons are sons only in name. So if you kill all of them, they will be born again as three brothers from one umbilical cord who will become ministers of state.’
After hearing this, Mr Ch’ilso(ng came out of the fortune-teller’s house and sadly lamented to himself, ‘What should I do? What should I do with my seven children who are so good?’
When Mr Ch’ilso(ng did not return home even by the time the seven chil- dren had finished their studies for the day and eaten their dinner. They said, ‘Father still has not returned, so let us seven brothers go find him.’
And they went here and there searching for their father. While they were searching, a mournful cry sounded. ‘Brothers, our father is crying. Let us hurry.’
When they found him, Mr Ch’ilso(ng was crying absentmindedly. ‘Father, let us hurry home’, said the seven children.
As the seven children took Mr Ch’ilso(ng home, they asked, ‘Father, what of the divination? Did the fortune-teller say mother would pass away?’
‘My seven sons, if it were said that your mother is to pass away, why would I grieve like this?’ And he related the entire story of what the fortune-teller had said.The seven children stopped and consoled their father, ‘Father, let us feed our livers to mother and save her. Parents, once gone, never return, but children can be born again. Do not worry. Let us return home.’
On their return home, they were about to cross a hill when a deer suddenly appeared and blocked the way.
‘Deer, we are on our way to do important work, do not block us. Move aside’, said Mr Ch’ilso(ng.
But the deer stood firmly and said, ‘Mr Ch’ilso(ng, I devoted myself to obtain these sons.What do you think you are doing killing them now? When I gave birth to them, you abandoned me and went up to the country of heaven to remarry. Then my seven sons left to look for their father. Losing my husband and then my sons, I became a mountain deer to save my offspring.’
When the deer told the seven children to step back, they all suddenly
disappeared from sight. And the deer took out seven livers to give Mr Ch’ilso(ng, saying, ‘Put these seven livers through the front gate and watch what the stepmother does through the back gate.’
After the deer said this, she also suddenly disappeared from sight.
Mr Ch’ilso(ng carried the seven livers in his hands and returned to the house. When he put them through the front gate and watched from the back gate, the stepmother held the seven livers in her hand, touched them lightly to her lips, threw them away in the barn, and said, ‘Seven children, you are pitiful. If I gave birth to seven babies, I would feed and clothe them well.’
After six days the stepmother was completely cured.
‘Since seven lives have died to save my life, I need a purifying rite to cleanse the spirits of the seven children’, the stepmother said to herself, so she prepared all kinds of food for the purifying rite.
At this time, a woodcutter carrying an A-frame backpack up the mountain said to himself, ‘Pitiful seven children. Now they are dead and buried in the mountain. There is the purifying rite for you. Even in spirit, return to your home.’
The seven children heard this and ran home in a hurry.They arrived home and entered the main gate, saying, ‘We have come to visit our father and mother.’
The gatekeeper was surprised and uttered a spell, ‘If you are ghosts, depart! If you are human beings, enter!’
When the seven children entered the main gate, they said, ‘Father, we came to pay our respects.’
‘How can this be when our sons are dead?You are not our sons’, exclaimed Mr Ch’ilso(ng.
‘Father, we have come to pay our respects,’ the seven children repeated. ‘Children, are you ghosts or human beings?’ asked Mr Ch’ilso(ng. ‘We are human beings’, replied the seven children.
‘If you are my sons, go out, wear big wooden clogs, and enter the house without a trace’, said Mr Ch’ilso(ng.
The sons did as they were told.
‘God bless me! You are ghosts come to harm me.’ Mr Ch’ilso(ng still suspected them.
‘Father, let us cut our fingers and collect our blood as proof ’, said the seven children.
Among many witnesses, they cut their fingers and bled onto a plate filled with water. Mr Ch’ilso(ng’s blood became bones and the blood of the seven children became flesh to congeal together.
Then Mr Ch’ilso(ng ran and hugged the seven children and said, ‘Ah, my sons! I thought you had become ghosts when you disappeared from sight, but you are alive.’
At this time, the stepmother came in from outside, saw the very seven chil- dren who she believed were already dead. She pretended to be sick again, giving a cry of pain towards Mr Ch’ilso(ng, ‘I became sick because the seven
human beings came from the east. Nevertheless, you didn’t feed me their livers. Ouch! My head hurts me. Ouch! My bowels hurt me.’
Then Mr Ch’ilso(ng realized completely for the first time how wicked she was. He then looked at her, saying, ‘Take that wicked and impudent woman outside at once and kill her with arrows.’
‘Ah, Father, but she is still a mother. How can we kill her with arrows?’ the seven children implored.
Then Mr Ch’ilso(ng ran and kicked the stepmother this way and that, and she became a viper, a frog and then a mole.
‘You have committed a great sin in Ch’o(nhagung, so how can you live to see the sun? Become a mole so that you can never see heaven’, Mr Ch’ilso(ng cursed her, and then said to his sons, ‘My seven sons, let us find your true mother. Let us go to your true mother who lives alone having lost her husband and sons.’
When Mr Ch’ilso(ng and the seven children came down to Chihagung and saw their old house, the front wall was torn down, the back wall had collapsed, and the courtyard was a mugwort field. They asked a passer- by, ‘What happened to the woman who used to live here?’
‘It has been three months and ten days since she drowned herself in this pond after losing her husband and sons,’ said the passer-by.
The seven children heard this, shed tears for their mother, and entered the pond. As if the pond itself realized this, it began to dry up. When the seven children called for their mother, the pond dried up even more. And when they called for their mother a third time, the pond dried up completely, and their mother’s corpse came into sight.
As the seven children saw the corpse, they cried much mournfully. Then a mysterious big bird came forward suddenly and said, ‘I can take you on my back and fly to a garden in the west where life-giving flowers are growing if you give twelve lumps of jerked meat made of a big cow to me. Then you can revive your dead mother with the flowers.’
The seven children mounted the big bird’s back after they prepared the jerked meat.
‘I can fly between here and the garden if you each feed me six lumps of the jerked meat while I am coming and going’, said the big bird.
So the seven children got the life-giving flowers with the big bird’s help; then they stuck them in their mother’s corpse so that her bones and flesh regenerated and her breath returned.
As their dead mother revived perfectly, they said together, ‘Ah, Mother, we have brought back father whose departure fuelled your despair while you were alive.’
Then she came out of the pond, saying, ‘Ah, my sons! You are filial sons sent from heaven.You seven brothers have brought back your father’, and she went up to Ch’o(nhagung with her husband and seven sons.